Ex-Leader of Ivory Coast Is Ordered to Stand Trial

By ADAM NOSSITER

June 12, 2014

DAKAR, Senegal — Laurent Gbagbo, the former Ivory Coast strongman whose refusal to accept electoral defeat in 2010 set off a brief but bloody civil war, was ordered to stand trial Thursday by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

More than three years after Mr. Gbagbo was finally ousted with the help of French forces, the court confirmed that he must stand trial on charges of crimes against humanity. Mr. Gbagbo, 69, is accused of masterminding the murder and rape of dozens of peaceful demonstrators in the country’s commercial capital, Abidjan, between December 2010 and April 2011. At least 3,000 people were killed and more than 150 women were raped during the five-month conflict, most of them by pro-Gbagbo forces.

Mr. Gbagbo was initially charged in 2011, but last year prosecutors were ordered by the court to gather more evidence to confirm that the original charges warranted a trial.

“The I.C.C. judges’ decision should remind senior officials who seem untouchable that the reach of the law may one day extend to them,” the advocacy group Human Rights Watch said in a statement.